I'm very excited to see this game being developed right now, and how they develop it. id Software doesn't care about fast paced shooters any more, and now they don't care about Linux too, so it seems to me that this UT could very well be the game to rule them all. Open source shooters have come a great way (personally I think Xonotics has the greatest potential), but for some reason they didn't reach the state of perfection that an UT or a Quake can achieve.

I'm very excited to see this game being developed right now, and how they develop it. id Software doesn't care about fast paced shooters any more, and now they don't care about Linux too, so it seems to me that this UT could very well be the game to rule them all. Open source shooters have come a great way (personally I think Xonotics has the greatest potential), but for some reason they didn't reach the state of perfection that an UT or a Quake can achieve.

I have in later years heard these claims, but I was never aware of this back in the days. I thought it was just the dedicated server that was available for Linux.

Was the client released for Linux at the same time, or later? And why are there no Linux version of the UTs in Steam Store?

[quote=Hamish][quote=Beamboom]It's still unreal to me that the next UT is coming to Linux.
[/quote]
Even though that was the standard for the longest time...[/quote]
I have in later years heard these claims, but I was never aware of this back in the days. I thought it was just the dedicated server that was available for Linux.
Was the client released for Linux at the same time, or later? And why are there no Linux version of the UTs in Steam Store?

Take a piece of advice: actually make sure you have some ground to stand on before acting standoffish.

The original UT's server and client were ported in-house by Epic and then later taken over by Loki Software - that being said, despite being an official Loki product, it was never sold in boxes and instead acted more like the unofficial id Software ports in that you needed to have the Windows version's data and then use a separate Linux installer.

Ryan C. Gordon ported both Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004 to Linux, and not only did he make both a server and a client for these games, but the Linux installer was actually included on the game disks. No joke. If you have a copy of them, look for the linux-installer.sh files.

UT3 was supposed to be the same deal, but while Gordon was able to make and release a server, his client for the game was never released. There is a lot of speculation about why this is the case, but very little concrete facts, which is part of the reason why some in the Linux community are still suspicious of Epic, even with all of their recent gestures.

As to why these ports are not currently on Steam, well, Epic has probably just not bothered with it, and besides, the sun does not just rise and fall on Valve. There was Linux gaming before Steam. It is an interesting history, and I suggest you look it up someday.

Take a piece of advice: actually make sure you have some ground to stand on before acting standoffish.
The original UT's server and [i][b]client[/b][/i] were ported in-house by Epic and then later taken over by Loki Software - that being said, despite being an official Loki product, it was never sold in boxes and instead acted more like the unofficial id Software ports in that you needed to have the Windows version's data and then use a separate Linux installer.
Ryan C. Gordon ported both Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004 to Linux, and not only did he make both a server and a [i][b]client[/b][/i] for these games, [i][b]but the Linux installer was actually included on the game disks[/b][/i]. No joke. If you have a copy of them, look for the linux-installer.sh files.
UT3 was supposed to be the same deal, but while Gordon was able to make and release a server, his client for the game was never released. There is a lot of speculation about why this is the case, but very little concrete facts, which is part of the reason why some in the Linux community are still suspicious of Epic, even with all of their recent gestures.
As to why these ports are not currently on Steam, well, Epic has probably just not bothered with it, and besides, the sun does not just rise and fall on Valve. There was Linux gaming before Steam. It is an interesting history, and I suggest you look it up someday.

I did play a lot in Linux the past .. uhm .. lot of years, including WoW, RiFT and others. Mostly with wine though. UT was probably the first game deploying with linux binary and installer on retail disks.

Our "retail disk" is GoG or Steam today. For me, more important that UT coming on Linux is that we get a capable engine supporting it - probably even with a native running toolset. That's what game developers are interested in, and so should we. If they make it easy for developers to port games, we'll see a lot of more games.

I only have experience with Unity, where the workflow is awful. Epic seems to go the right direction by porting tools, so you're able to test and debug right where you are out of the know editors.

I guess it's a busy time for Gordon as well.. could think that some more companies are actually looking for external help now.

I did play a lot in Linux the past .. uhm .. lot of years, including WoW, RiFT and others. Mostly with wine though. UT was probably the first game deploying with linux binary and installer on retail disks.
Our "retail disk" is GoG or Steam today. For me, more important that UT coming on Linux is that we get a capable engine supporting it - probably even with a native running toolset. That's what game developers are interested in, and so should we. If they make it easy for developers to port games, we'll see a lot of more games.
I only have experience with Unity, where the workflow is awful. Epic seems to go the right direction by porting tools, so you're able to test and debug right where you are out of the know editors.
I guess it's a busy time for Gordon as well.. could think that some more companies are actually looking for external help now.

Yes, the engine support is the main important thing, although the same applied to the older UT ports as well to an extent - the main difference between the older Unreal engines and UE4 is that this engine supports cross-platform from the get-go upstream and offers full source code access, which should actually make the work of porters like Gordon less necessary in the long run.

If you can look them up Gordon's own SELF talks are pretty good for this as well.

Yes, the engine support is the main important thing, although the same applied to the older UT ports as well to an extent - the main difference between the older Unreal engines and UE4 is that this engine supports cross-platform from the get-go upstream and offers full source code access, which should actually make the work of porters like Gordon less necessary in the long run.
And there were retail Linux games on disks before UT2003, mostly from Loki Software but there were also a few others such as LGP, Hyperion, Macmillan Digital Publishing, etc. Since people seem to be having trouble looking back that far, I would suggest consulting these links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_gaming#History
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryan_C._Gordon
If you can look them up Gordon's own SELF talks are pretty good for this as well.